This may seem quite random and it is. I got an e-mail from the Contemporary Jewish Museum advertising an exhibit called “Born to Read.” Celebrating the Lyrics of Bruce Springsteen.

August 20th from 6:30 to 9:00pm.
736 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

What a way to celebrate a great artist. I’m going for sure!  So, here’s to “The Boss”. I have supplied some trivia and youtube links about Mr. Springsteen, read on!

• How did Bruce Springsteen become the boss?

The story goes something like this, “Springsteen had been signed to a record deal two years earlier, when his then manager Mike Appel marched into the office of famed producer and Columbia Records executive John Hammond and brashly said, So you’re the guy who found Bob Dylan. I wanna see if that was just a fluke, or if you really have ears, because I’ve got somebody much better than him.”
Despite the cocky sales pitch, Hammond was knocked out by Springsteen’s romantic lyrical imagery and muscular sound.

• The first album for Columbia Records was “Born To Run”.
Here’s the title song from the album. It was released on August 25th 1975 on Columbia Records.

• The first song a young Bruce learned play on the guitar was the Beatles “Twist and Shout.”

• With the sole exception of 1995’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” all of Bruce’s albums since 1975’s “Born to Run” have been in the top 5 of the US album chart.

• Bruce has fans in high places. Barack Obama said, “A handful of people who enter into your lives through their music and tell the American people’s story. Bruce Springsteen is one of those people.” He also said, “I ran for President because I couldn’t be Bruce Springsteen.”

• Dr. Ruth Westheimer once visited Bruce backstage at a show.  She told him she liked what he said in his songs about love and sex, but she wished he’d mention contraception once in a while.

• Fire (my personal favorite Bruce song). In May 1977, Bruce and Steve Van Zandt went to an Elvis Presley concert in Philadelphia. A few days later Bruce wrote “Fire” and allegedly sent a demo of the song to Presley hoping he might cover it.  Whether the tape got sent or not, Presley died that August and Bruce wound up giving “Fire” to Robert Gordon. Gordon’s version of the song was covered by the The Pointer Sisters who made it a hit in 1979.

• In December 1999 the crew of the space shuttle Discovery woke up to Bruce’s song “Rendezvous” on the day they were scheduled to rendezvous with the Hubble Space Telescope.

• Hungry Heart, In 1979, Bruce saw the Ramones play at the Fast Lane in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He met the band and Joey Ramone asked Bruce to write a song for them. Springsteen wrote “Hungry Heart” and considered giving it to them, but hung on to it at the urging of his manager.

• “I’m on Fire” was recorded in February 1982 during the first sessions of “Born in the U.S.A..”  It was one of the first times Springsteen used synthesizers in his music.

• Bruce performs for Jon Stewart’s farewell show.